The present invention relates to a centrifuge of the type comprising a rotor with at least one housing to hold a product for centrifuging and an associated lid to close the said housing, the centrifuge also comprising a motor on which the rotor is mounted to rotate about an axis of rotation.
The invention applies, for example to the centrifuging of biological products.
For centrifuging such products, it is usual to employ receptacles containing the products to be centrifuged in the housings of the rotor. Each housing is then sealed hermetically with its associated lid.
The use of lids is particularly important when centrifuging dangerous biological products because if the receptacles containing such products are open, or if they break, centrifugation will give rise to an aerosol which would act as a vehicle for dangerous substances.
The use of lids also enables such an aerosol to be confined within the housings.
If a closure lid for a housing is absent during centrifugation, the aerosol will be diffused and may be deposited inside the enclosure of the centrifuge in which the rotor is arranged.
This situation is especially hazardous for operators who could inhale the aerosol on opening the enclosure of the centrifuge, or who could be contaminated by the aerosol deposited on the walls of the enclosure or on the rotor.
It is an object of the invention to solve this problem by providing a centrifuge of the abovementioned type that limits the risks associated with centrifugation on a rotor in which a housing is not closed by its lid.
To this end, the subject of the invention is a centrifuge of the abovementioned type, characterized in that it comprises means of checking for the presence, on each housing, of the associated lid in order to prevent the execution of a cycle of centrifugation if the lid of a housing is absent.
In accordance with certain particular embodiments, the centrifuge may comprise one or more of the following characteristics, taken in isolation or in all technically possible combinations:
the said checking means comprise at least one element to be detected on each lid and at least one corresponding sensor,
the centrifuge comprises a motor control unit designed to carry out a step of checking for the presence on each housing of the associated lid, in the course of which step the said unit causes the rotor to be rotated, compares the number of element(s) detected with the total number of element(s) that would be detected if each lid were present, and prevents the execution of a cycle of centrifugation if the number of element(s) detected is less than the total number of element(s) that should be detected,
the control unit is designed to carry out the check step before executing each cycle of centrifugation of the rotor,
during the said check step, the control unit causes the rotor to be rotated at a speed at which there is no risk of formation of aerosol,
the centrifuge comprises means of detecting the type of rotor mounted on the motor, and the control unit is designed to determine the total number of element(s) to be detected on the basis of the type of rotor detected,
the control unit comprises memory means in which is stored a total fixed number of element(s) to be detected whatever the type of rotor mounted on the motor,
the said checking means comprise several sensors arranged at different distances from the axis of rotation,
several of the said sensors are arranged at different levels relative to the axis of rotation,
each element to be detected is a magnet.
Also within the invention is an assembly comprising a centrifuge as defined above and several rotors that can be mounted on the motor of the centrifuge, each rotor having at least one housing to hold a product for centrifuging and an associated lid to close the said housing, characterized in that each rotor comprises the same number of element(s) to be detected.
A clearer understanding of the invention will be gained from a reading of the following description which is provided purely by way of example and refers to the accompanying drawings, in which: